Weird Al

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Thad
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Weird Al

Postby Thad » Mon Jul 14, 2014 5:03 pm


Niku
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Niku » Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:17 pm

I somehow completely missed Alpocalypse. Checking it out today .. I don't feel like it was one of his stronger albums, so I'm alright with that actually. It definitely had its moments. I'll probably keep it going in my car for a bit to see if it clicks more.

Looking forward to the next seven days, though.
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:37 pm

Yeah, that's about how I feel about it.

Maybe it's more because I don't listen to top 40 and didn't recognize the bulk of the parodies, but I thought the original songs were better and more memorable -- CNR and Skipper Dan are both highlights.

(And I leave my phone set to vibrate, but for when I accidentally turn the ringer on, it plays Ringtone.)

Don't know if it's relevant or not, but Alpocalypse was an album mostly made up of tracks he'd already released as singles and an EP, and singles appear to be the direction he's going from here on in now that his record contract is up.

There was a pretty good NPR interview with him on Saturday; he addresses that a bit:

And in fact, I don't know that I'm going to be doing any more traditional albums after this point, now that my record label deal is over. I think that digital distribution is more the way for me to go: putting out a single at a time, possibly two or three tracks or an EP. I don't know that putting out 12 songs at once in this day and age is the best way for me to get my music out there, because if I'm waiting that long, chances are a lot of the material is going to be somewhat dated by the time it comes out.

Wow, so this is the last "Weird Al" album?

Well, I have to be careful about that, because a lot of people listen to that and say "Oh, Al's retiring!" I am not retiring, I intend to keep making music like I have in the past. All I'm saying is, there's a pretty good chance this is the last conventional album.

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Re: Weird Al

Postby Niku » Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:42 pm

Thad wrote:Maybe it's more because I don't listen to top 40 and didn't recognize the bulk of the parodies, but I thought the original songs were better and more memorable -- CNR and Skipper Dan are both highlights.


That's almost always how I've felt about Al's music, really. He's occasionally absolutely smashed it out of the park with a parody, and it's what he's primarily known for, but it's his original songs and style-parodies that are really the strongest works that stick with me over the top-40 parodies.
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:04 pm

Going through the list in my head, I might be inclined to agree. Genius in France might be a career highlight; a few other favorites are Bob, Why Does This Always Happen to Me?, Everything You Know is Wrong, Dare to be Stupid, Dog Eat Dog, Hardware Store, and Albuquerque.

Of course, it bears noting that that list is mostly composed of style parodies of artists I like (Zappa, Dylan, TMBG, Devo, Talking Heads), whereas the parodies are usually flavor-of-the-month pop riffing on artists I don't like very much. (Then again, he's done plenty of parodies of artists I like, too, from Don McLean to -- well, to this; I think Happy is a pretty fun song.)

The style parodies also presumably give him and the band more freedom to flex their creative muscles; yes, they're still constraining themselves to other artists' styles, but they're not copying melodies and rhythms exactly.

And I don't think the guys in his band get NEARLY the credit they deserve for their talent. The kind of versatility it takes to go from Michael Jackson to Billy Joel to Alanis Morissette to Richard Harris to the Offspring -- and that's just the medley they do in the middle of the concert.

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Re: Weird Al

Postby François » Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:06 pm

For the last few weeks before I dropped out of high school the first time for causes of generalized misery, every morning getting out of bed I'd put on Fun Zone from the UHF sountrack to get me started and pumped on my day. I'm surprised at how long and how well that worked, considering that for the following 16 hours it was all steeply downhill every time.

(For the record I technically dropped out of high school twice, but I still have my high school diploma and entered our college equivalent at the same time as the people I grew up with, because in the end I'd be damned if I was gonna be a guy without a high school diploma.)

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Re: Weird Al

Postby Mongrel » Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:06 pm

I like that in the Tacky video, his second costume includes the shoes he normally wore for most of the 80's and 90's. That was a nice touch.
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:18 am



Word Crimes

...he...he knows he just ended a song about using correct English with a split infinitive, right? He has to. I think he's trolling me.
(I mean, "don't split infinitives" is kind of a bullshit rule anyway, like "Don't end a sentence in a preposition." Maybe that's the point he's making.)

Anyhow, a pretty great video on a subject that is not inherently visually interesting.



BTW, the album's out, unless you're waiting for the vinyl edition. I'm still not feeding the RIAA and will probably wait to pick it up until I can find it used somewhere.

(But again, his contract's up and after this his work should be independently published, so I look forward to giving him my money again at that point.)

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Re: Weird Al

Postby Caithness » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:00 pm

OOPS!
We don't have permission to stream this video in your location. Please choose another video from our massive library!

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Re: Weird Al

Postby Grath » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:01 pm

Appears to have been included in Google Play Music All Access so... I don't even have to buy it separately.

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Re: Weird Al

Postby Mothra » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:33 pm

Pota-pot wrote:OOPS!
We don't have permission to stream this video in your location. Please choose another video from our massive library!

For some reason it works if you watch it embedded on the Weird Al website (scroll down).

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Thad
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Tue Jul 15, 2014 3:43 pm

Edited posts to add YouTube embeds. Foreign-type people may still run across some region-locking chicanery, though.

Wonder if he'll be releasing every single video through a different provider. What a pain.

BTW, it's still worth following the Nerdist link on the first post since there's an article with it. If the location of the video looks familiar, that's because it's Maude Lebowski's loft.

Also, Vulture has a fun piece called The History Behind 12 Great Weird Al Videos with comments from the man himself.

“[It was also the first time I rode a Segway.] I own a Segway now, but I think at the time they charged me $500 to rent the Segway, which I thought was a little ridiculous. And I said, ‘You know, we are going to use this in a video and I think that you would enjoy the exposure.’ But they came back to us and said, ‘We don’t want our product associated with anything white and nerdy.’ I was like ‘Uh, a little too late for that, guys!’”

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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:06 pm


Niku
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Niku » Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:31 pm

That certainly took a turn. I really hope that lyric was Aluminati.
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Healy » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:49 pm

I have been conditioned to check out of any Weird Al song that is just about food, so the turn was a pleasant surprise.
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Thad
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:03 pm

Handy

Don't see it on YouTube yet; can update it when I do.

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Re: Weird Al

Postby sei » Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:09 pm

EDIT: Some cocksucker uploaded the actual video to youtube and then swapped it out with some bullshit promotional content. Pretty bullshit move. Link removed by sei.
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Mongrel » Thu Jul 17, 2014 10:08 pm

A cocksucker from Toronto, as his set so obnoxiously screamed. Maybe I can track him down and give him a wedgie.
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Thad
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:33 pm

sei wrote:EDIT: Some cocksucker uploaded the actual video to youtube and then swapped it out with some bullshit promotional content. Pretty bullshit move.


If only it had been the video for Tacky, it would have been perfect.

MEANWHILE:

Sports Song, which is basically a song version of You Will Suffer Humiliation When The Sports Team From My Area Defeats The Sports Team From Your Area.

In recognition of this fact, I am currently wearing the T-shirt.

Somewhere in America, a high school marching band director is trying to figure out a way to work this into next year's routine.


And speaking of Weird Al and the Onion: AV Club interview.

His favorite film is Top Secret. Which explains UHF.

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Thad
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Re: Weird Al

Postby Thad » Sat Jul 19, 2014 3:55 pm


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